Urge the Cherokee Bear Zoo to Close Cruel Bear Pits

Home to about a dozen miserable bears, the Cherokee Bear Zoo is a small remote tourist trap located off a highway in North Carolina—blink, and you’ll miss it. The dilapidated roadside attraction keeps these intelligent animals in grossly inhumane conditions. They are confined to virtually barren concrete pits, where they have no other option but to pace back and forth, walk in endless circles, and beg tourists to toss them a morsel of food.

Highly intelligent animals capable of empathy and a wide range of feelings, bears are active for up to 18 hours per day in their natural habitat and spend their time exploring diverse terrain. In the wild, bears forage for a wide variety of foods and dig in soft earth, brush, and leaves—but the concrete pits that the Cherokee bears are forced to call home deprive them of everything that is natural and important to them. Surrounded by four solid walls, the bears cannot scan the horizon, gain a perspective on their surroundings, or make much use of their acute sense of smell.

Cherokee’s roadside zoos have made no effort to simulate the animals’ natural habitat or provide them with stimulation. They have also been cited repeatedly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for failing to meet minimal federal standards established in the Animal Welfare Act. Check out PETA’s investigation of a bear park in Cherokee similar to the Cherokee Bear Zoo here to see the filth, hunger, and misery that these captive bears are forced to endure.

You can help close this cruel animal prison by urging the owners of Cherokee Bear Zoo to release the bears to a reputable sanctuary. They are already feeling the heat from locals and thousands of others who have demanded that the bears be moved to a more natural environment at a reputable sanctuary—one that exists exclusively to benefit and rehabilitate animals. Please call Cherokee Bear Zoo owners Barry and Collette Coggins at 828-497-4525.

Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights? Read more.